


Exclusive

by BrilliantlyHorrid



Series: Time and place [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Daisy is an awkward interview, F/M, Fluff, Sequel, Set in the vague future, cousyfest2k17, ish, media attention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-11 23:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10477197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrilliantlyHorrid/pseuds/BrilliantlyHorrid
Summary: “I’m sorry,” Coulson said, still clearly frustrated with the situation, but softer. Probably worried his anger wasn’t doing her any favors.Daisy shrugged, fiddling with the cuffs of her jacket. “It is what it is,” she said. Coulson raised an eyebrow, like he didn’t quite believe her. “I mean, I was the one whose idea of stealthy escape was making you propose to me on the jumbotron."The media latches onto a misleading moment and runs with it. Cousy Romfest Day One: 'Marry me Quake.'





	

**Author's Note:**

> Meant as a sequel to Not a spectator sport, but maybe stands on its own. The first one isn't too long though so I mean, feel free to get a refresher.

“This’ll be easy,” the woman said as a man came over and wordlessly attached something to Daisy’s jacket. “Mostly painless.” She winked, and Daisy tried to force a smile on her face.

“ _Try to look a little less like you’re being tortured._ ”

After the initial surprise of the sound of Coulson’s voice in her ear, Daisy rolled her eyes.

“Easy for you to say,” she said through gritted teeth. “You’re not--”

Pausing as yet another person came by to brush powder on her nose, cheeks and forehead, Daisy tried to sit still and look less like she was being tortured.

She _really_ hated these things though.

“If you want to tuck that behind you,” the host, Christine said, pointing to the box attached to the mic on her lapel. Daisy obliged, moving the piece out of the camera’s view. Daisy thanked the woman touching up her makeup as she left, then took another glance around the studio. It was bright, colder than she would have expected, and constantly busy, even when the cameras weren’t running.

_“That’s better.”_

Daisy pointed to her earpiece, hidden behind her hair. “Who gave him a radio?” Christine laughed, that elegant, genuine but probably practiced laugh of a morning show host, not really answering Daisy’s question. It was fine, she wasn’t really expecting one. Coulson was here as her, what? Assistant? Handler? He wouldn’t need to be feeding her answers, unless something came up to truly stump her, he was of the mind that Daisy would do better without any coaching.

(Daisy herself didn’t have his confidence in her abilities.)

But it was probably just a precaution. This was supposed to be a puff piece, a little “get to know the Inhuman now that she’s our friend” push from the powers that be. Would Captain America get pushed on TV to talk between segments on meal planning on a budget and handmade Easter baskets? _Well, actually maybe,_ Daisy thought, remembering Cap’s propaganda showtunes past.

_“You’ll do great, just be yourself.”_

Daisy could feel the change in the room before anyone had to say anything. They would be on the air soon. Christine reached across and gave her knee a quick squeeze, turning her smiling face to the camera before Daisy could react to the familiarity. _Was that a tactic?_

“Good morning, good morning, how are you all doing this morning?” the host said cheerfully, before rattling off some opening headlines that popped up on the teleprompter.

“ _How many ‘mornings’ was that? Did that seem like a lot to you? Seemed like a lot to me.”_

Resisting an eye roll this time, knowing she was (possibly?) on camera, Daisy just smiled. That was probably his intention anyway.

 

He was right. Well, everyone was. It was going well. Christine didn’t lob any questions at her she wasn’t ready for, and Daisy was getting more comfortable as time went on. She could feel the segment beginning to wrap up, watching everyone out of the corner of her eye as she finished talking about the many benefits of SHIELD being the ones to take in Inhumans and how they’d been successful so far in helping some regain some normalcy and go back into society.

“ _Great answer_ ,” Coulson’s voice said warmly in her ear, and Daisy smiled, having realized how much easier it was to do when he was helping her out and she wasn’t thinking about how it looked on camera.

“Wow, that is amazing,” Christine said, and maybe Daisy was imagining things but she could see that Always On glimmer in her eye change slightly as she geared up for (what Daisy hoped was) her final question. “So, I would be run out of the network if I didn’t ask this before you go,” she began, and Daisy half-suspected she was about to be asked for a powers demonstration. That was impossible though, the insurance forms were pretty clear. “How is the wedding planning?”

Daisy laughed, convinced she had misheard in her relief of being finished.

“I’m sorry, the what?”

Christine tilted her head, smiling coyly. “Don’t think we didn’t do our research,” she said playfully, “there were some questions about whether it was you or a lookalike, but we figured it out. NFL game, right before halftime?”

Daisy felt stuck to her chair, waiting for all of the pieces to come together. _She doesn’t mean--_ “Oh, you’ve got the photo, up on the screen there,” she muttered awkwardly. Sure enough, there she was, months back, a last ditch effort to evade what turned out to be an incredibly shady unofficial after the same inhuman as them. “That’s me,” she said, mostly to herself, but realizing she basically had confirmed it if the strangled ‘ _why’_ from Coulson in her ear was any indication.

“We were surprised to see such a public proposal, since you seem to be a bit of a private person.”

 _A bit of a private person?_ If that wasn’t the understatement of the century after the interview they’d just had, Daisy would eat her boot. They’d been very clear, _no_ personal questions. Vaguely she could see some shuffling around behind the cameras and she just knew Coulson was stressing that very point to someone. Possibly the person in charge of graphics, because the incriminating photo of him down on one knee--face somewhat obscured by an enthusiastic flag waving fan--disappeared from the screen completely.

“I um, yeah,” Daisy said, feeling her face heat up rapidly. It wasn’t as much the misunderstanding, that she and Coulson were-- but she was caught off guard, floundering on live television. This was why she liked to keep her mouth shut when the cameras were on, there wasn’t this feeling of people waiting on every word she said, while she just knew it was bound to disappoint. “I-- that’s kind of personal,” she finally got out, and Christine patted her arm like they were old pals.

“I had to ask,” she said, winking.

_Did you?_

“Well, I’m sure we are all wishing the best for you and your mystery guy. We’d love to see some wedding pictures!”

“Yeaaahhh,” Daisy trailed off, and Christine faced the camera again, introducing the segment that would follow the commercial break.

Once the cameras were off, Daisy turned to face the host. “What was that?” She was agitated, already picturing the follow up headlines and questions. This was going to be a mess, a mess she _really_ didn’t need in addition to her already stressful workload.

“Sorry, I had to take the shot,” she answered. “We were the first network you agreed to an interview with so I needed to make sure we got everything we could.”

“Consider that the last one,” Coulson said, followed by a sheepish looking PA. He gestured for Daisy to stand up and go with him, which she attempted to do when her transmitter dropped to the floor behind her, the mic still pinned to her lapel. Coulson picked up the box while she hastily unpinned the mic, then he sort of led her away. He looked annoyed, so Daisy figured they might be going for a ‘storm out angrily’ thing in case the network didn't get the memo that they wouldn't be getting a second interview. 

She thought about scowling too, but she was just too annoyed and resigned to muster up the energy.

“I can’t believe they dropped that on you,” Coulson said once the elevator doors closed. He actually sounded _angry,_ and it definitely wasn’t for the benefit of the PA riding down with them. “Sorry,” he told said PA, and she waved it away. Probably used to it. “We gave them an approved list,” he continued, and Daisy just nodded.

The elevator doors opened to the parking garage and they trudged, defeated, over to the SUV. Once they were inside, Coulson leaned back in the driver’s seat and looked over at her. “I’m sorry,” he said, still clearly frustrated but softer, probably worried his anger wasn’t doing her any favors.

Daisy shrugged, fiddling with the cuffs of her jacket. “It is what it is,” she said. Coulson raised an eyebrow, like he didn’t quite believe her. “I mean, I was the one whose idea of stealthy escape was making you propose to me on the jumbotron."

Coulson shrugged, like he hadn’t thought of it that way. But it wasn’t like he was blaming her for _that_ incident, just looking at it differently, like it amused him.

“How did it take them so long to pick that up?” Daisy asked, herself as much as Coulson. This was one of her first real sit down interviews, but she got enough press in the past year that someone might pick her out of a crowd.

“Hiding in plain sight,” Coulson said. “If you were at a football game and saw a guy who kind of looked like Thor, would you assume it’s actually an Asgardian prince or just some guy who kind of looks like Thor?”

“Well first of all, if Thor was in a crowd, I’d notice,” Daisy said, seeing a funny scowl on his face at that and smiling.

“Yeah, yeah,” Coulson sighed. He looked at her again, tilting his head in a way that made Daisy kind of nervous, like she was being analyzed.

“What?”

“I think if _you_ were in a crowd, people would notice.” He looked kind of sheepish, like he had just revealed something he shouldn’t have.

Which was when Daisy realized that was a _compliment_. Playful, in a way things hadn’t exactly been between them lately.

Leaning a little closer over the console, Daisy watched Coulson cautiously do the same, looking ready to bolt at the first sign he’d read the situation wrong. Suddenly she was reminded of the last time they’d been this close. It had been hurried, panicked at first, and she wasn’t totally sure he was on board (until his fingers were digging into her waist and his tongue was down her throat and she wasn’t sure if there were people actually cheering around them or if it was in her head) but it was still technically a first kiss. All the awkwardness should be out of the way, right? Even if they hadn’t talked about it and it had been months.

Maybe the awkwardness wasn’t totally gone.

“I was thinking,” Daisy said, trying to sound casual. Like her heart wasn’t about to vibrate out of her chest. Why did she have to remember that kiss _now_? What it felt like to have him wrapped around her in a way that was somehow better than all the other times they’d embraced, like the last piece of the puzzle had finally been locked into place after so many attempts. “Maybe you could help me out, with answering that kind of question in the future.”

Coulson’s brow furrowed, but he stayed put. “Like over the headset?”

 _So practical._ Daisy smiled fondly. “No. I mean, as much as I love having your voice in my ear,” she reached over and put a hand on his arm, innocent, easily written off as friendly in a way that she was _sure_ her voice and face were not. “And I do love that, you know. Having your voice in my ear. Just so you’re like, aware. What I _mean_ is,” she powered through, trying not to be distracted by the annoyingly cute blush that seemed to be spreading across his face, “maybe before the next interview, like soon, you could help give me something to talk about when that topic comes up.”

It was clumsy and not at all what she would have planned if she had the time, but Daisy wasn’t really a grand gestures type of girl. She liked to think she knew people, and could do enough small gestures that got that point across. And she didn’t think Coulson would mind a clumsy maybe love confession.

“Yeah, I think I could do that,” he answered, eyes looking down at her hand on his arm before meeting her own. See? He was able to put it together, even with the awkward stilted breadcrumbs he was given. He looked like he might need more though, like he was still hesitating.

“I mean like, you don’t have to _marry_ me but just-- neverm--Coulson?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to kiss you now. Just so we’re clear about what’s about to happen.”

“Okay.”

 _Okay_ , he says, like she told him she’s going to turn off the TV or run to the grocery store. _Okay_. But then again, did it really have to be this big momentous occasion?

Maybe he liked small gestures too.

Coulson appeared to notice that, despite her matter-of-fact declaration, she hadn’t made any moves yet, so he reached over and kind of tugged her arm. Daisy was going to make a joke about him being impatient but his lips were on hers again for the first time and she was a little preoccupied. It was somehow the same and totally different from the first kiss, like her memories of it hadn’t done it justice--and she had thought about it _a lot._ On the way back to the base, after their not-so-cryptic talk by the bunks that was suddenly forgotten the next morning, like she hadn’t given him all the information he needed. Maybe they had just needed more time, more exposure or incentive to get a move on. Pulling away, noting the sad little noise he made when she did so, Daisy leaned her forehead against his. She could already tell she was going to like this part, the freedom to be so close.

“You know, it was kind of sloppy of them not to know that was you,” she said, feeling the wrinkles form in his forehead as he tried to see where she was going with this. That was kind of weird, but nice. She was weird. “They did so much _research_ to confirm that was me, but you were there all morning, right by my side.”

“Mmhmm,” Coulson sighed, pressing his lips to her cheek like she had said something terribly romantic.

“So that was a big story right under their noses they missed out on,” she continued, practically hearing Coulson’s gears turning. That was the thing about being on the same page as someone, you just knew when they got it. “That’s pretty embarrassing, what if someone else scooped them?”

Pulling away, Coulson looked at her curiously. “Like, a rival network?”

She knew she didn’t just like him for his looks.

“I mean, anyone could _happen_ upon that detail,” she said, tapping her fingers across the top of his hand. Oh no, she was addicted already. Luckily for her, Coulson seemed to be watching the gesture, captivated. It wasn’t just her.

“But just out of curiosity, do we know who their rival network is?”

Because this was a story she just might not mind telling.


End file.
